Causal Paper Topic

  The first major essay for ENGL 1304 is a causal argument.  The topic I have chosen to write about is the downturn in the economy and “financial crisis”, including the mortgage mess.

  After some thought, my research question is:  Who is primarily to blame for the mortgage mess and the resulting financial crisis?  I feel that this really goes to the heart of the whole situation.  The reason being is that it would shed light not only on whom to blame for everything, but also in how to solve the situation and to help prevent it from occurring in the future.

  I understand that to some people, this topic is very intimidating, difficult to follow, and hard to fully grasp.  However, I have a lot of interest in this topic.  I am a senior Economics major and have a lot of interest in accounting, finance, and obviously economics.  I have already taken courses in International Economics, Intro to Finance and the Economics of Money and Banking, in addition to a slew of other courses including math and accounting.  So I already feel that I have a foothold in the areas that I will be treading.  I also hope to someday get my MBA in Finance and go on to work for a large Fortune 500 company.  Doing research on a topic like this will give myself background information in going forward with future decisions.

  My ideas for this paper include researching what are the lenders’ responsibilities in a mortgage, how individuals can get a liar loan, how do lenders make money on a loan, and I need to research some data on mortgages taken out over the last 5 years or so to look for trends.  This type of thinkng has led me to a secondary research question:  What trends were followed in the mortgage industry that caused the financial meltdown of 2008?

  I guess we’ll all have to wait and see the final paper for what I discover….

Visual Argument Assignment

Disclaimer:  The following cartoon is for an assignment regarding visual arguments.  It does not necessarily reflect my personal opinions.  However, it is my own drawing and writing, which I then scanned, for purposes of fulfilling the assignment.

Assignment 3 – Critique of “Glee”

For today’s assigment, I watched Fox’s pilot episode of “Glee”.  It’s a different kind of TV show in that it incorporates a lot of musical numbers, dances, and vocalized montages.  The drama-comedy mixed between numbers is not bad either, as the creators try to add depth to a slew of characters in an otherwise one-hit wonder.

Fox’s new show is doing two new things.  The first is obvious, Fox is trying to take the popularity of musically inspired shows and movies to the standard drama-comedy.  The other is less obvious as the show tends to focus as much as on the teachers in the school as on the kids.  I find this new to me, because if a show is about kids on TV, it’s usually within the realm of the family, as in “Malcolm in the Middle” or “OC”.  Or if a show is about kids in school, it hardly touches the teachers and focuses completely on the kids, such as “Saved by the Bell” or “Head of the Class”.  ”Glee” develops the teachers even more than the kids themselves, at least in the pilot.  It’s clear that the writers will continue to develop both sets of characters more as the show moves forward.

The most disappointing aspect of the show is it’s all too familiar diverse set of characters.  Shows nowadays have a formula for groups of individuals.  Get one jock, one preppie, one out-cast, one punk rocker, one African-American and throw them on a set together.  And, just for that last sliver of the population, throw in a boy in a wheel-chair.

This is disappointing because they make it so obvious at how different they each are.  They are trying too hard to appeal to everybody.  For example, throughout the episode, how many black people do you see?  I can only remember one… and you better believe she was in the glee club.  Oh, and the same for the Asian girl.  Only let’s also make her a punk-rocker, so we’ll kill two birds with one stone.  These types of mix-and-match stereo-types are taken from movies and other sitcoms.  See the above mentioned TV shows, and movies such as “American Pie”, “Clueless”, “The Breakfast Club” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”.  However, in this episode at least, there are no other characters similar to the students in the glee club.  We never see another African-American, another Asian, another punk rocker, or another sensitive jock.  We don’t even get the sense there are other preppies in the school except for the lead female.  All these stereotypes are left for the glee club.

I can only guess that Fox is trying to capture the same popularity for it’s show as it has for “American Idol” and appeal to fans of musicals such as “High School Musical”, “Hair”, and “Mama Mia”.  These are trending very popular right now, from what I can tell with their recent successes.

However, I think Fox needs to further develop the kids’ characters similar to the complexity of the teachers’ characters.  If they focused more on character development, and less on song and dance, they are more likely to have a long term hit on their hands.  At least this way, it won’t be so obvious that the kids are very stereotypical and would actually appeal to more people.

Assignment 2 – Believing and Doubting

Believing

  Today, I read the article in the Wall Street Journal called, “Labor Day and the American Dream” by William McGurn.  I agree with the writer’s assertion that, “while college is a good way to gain human capital, it’s not the only way.”

  The writer points out the well-known statistic of the ever-widening gap in earnings between those that do have degrees versus those that don’t get degrees.  But, he quickly notes that those are on average.

  He makes the obvious footnote to one Bill Gates and Microsoft, but also notes a personal experience of his through someone in his neighborhood.

  Basically, the writer is saying that you can make a lot of money through other paths than getting a college degree.  You just have to continue to learn new skills and adapt.  Some of the additional paths include learning through apprenticeships, community college, on-the-job training, certification programs, etc.

  I agree with his assertions.  I have heard many the story of local businessmen that started out on the bottom rung of jobs, or they go through apprenticeships, and now, not only own a business, have expanded to own several.  And none of them got degrees either.

  So, the old adage holds true, that if you do something you love, you will be happy in life, no matter which path you choose.  This article points out that you don’t just have to settle for happiness, but you can be quite successful too.

 

 

Doubting 

  Today, I read the article in the Wall Street Journal called, “Labor Day and the American Dream” by William McGurn.  While I understand the writer’s premise, that one can be successful in life without getting a college degree, I feel I must disagree with his encouraging words.

 

  The author admits that “on average, a college grad will make much more money and have significantly greater job security than his high school counterpart.”  He then goes on to mention all the variety of ways that one can be successful without getting a college degree and that there are standouts that are very successful.  The author glosses over the part that this well-known statistic is an “average.”  Meaning that, most people that don’t get a college degree, end up making less than the American mean earnings.

 

  While I do agree that one can be very successful without a college degree, the few individuals that are successful do not make up for all the unsuccessful people that didn’t get college degrees.  Also, those few successful individuals would probably do just as well, if not better, with a college degree.

  So, while you may be wondering what you’re path will be to success, go to college in the meantime and learn something that might be useful to you.  At least after you get your degree, you’re already one step closer.

Assignment

  Today for class, I read “Orientation” by Daniel Orozco.  It is a very interesting piece that peaks your interest from the opening lines, “Those are the offices and these are the cubicles.  That’s my cubicle there, and this is your cubicle.”

  The short story deals with an introduction to one’s work, workplace and the people within it.  It also introduces some of the business procedures and lines of communication within the workplace.  The story is supposedly a conversation between a current employee and a new employee, and is labeled an “orientation”.  Though, this can be open to interpretation, as we only read one side of the conversation, the person talking to us.

  The claim that I feel the story seems to make is the level of monotony in the workplace.  It does this through its use of style and pace.  He presents information about people with the same delivery as he does about forms and procedures.  He uses short sentences that get straight to the point and details that go beyond what is necessarily to make his short points.  The humor is dark and dry, the same as the forms and procedures that are presented.

  The ideas and procedures one must follow reduces the new employee/reader to a cog in a machine, giving us relentless sets of specific instructions that if not followed properly, could result in being “let go”.  This “do this”, “don’t do that” mentality likens the reader to a small miniscule piece of the larger picture, one that is almost expendable.

  The emotions of the reader are toyed with as he goes into relentless details about the lives of the employees.  He presents the details about people and procedures in a humorous way, although in some cases dark humor, we get the sense of individuality but also monotony and unfulfilled lives.  Again, the style and pace add to this feeling.  But as he goes into details about each individual, you get the sense that what is said about them could be real or it could be the wandering imagination of someone bored at work.  A good example of this is when he talks about Kevin Howard who “sits in that cubicle over there.  He is a serial killer, the one they call the Carpet Cutter….”  This is towards the end of the piece, giving us the sense that he has taken his humorous imagination about the people in his office space as far as he could take it without getting just completely absurd.

  However, it is a great piece that definitely makes you think about your own place of work and the people around you.

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